Category Archives: Interviews

I have just returned from a six week vacation that took us to some wildly wonderful and unexpected places. We drove the vast and isolated deserts of Nevada, Arizona and California, and met some very interesting characters. Before we took the trip, I had been wondering about the direction of this blog, the questions were “How can I be helpful? What should be the focus?” This trip allowed me to realize that my love for meeting people and my passion for teaching can be combined. I am in the learning process myself and would like to introduce you to the great people I meet along the way.

Today, I would like you to meet i Cenizal, a children’s book illustrator whose work I admire for being whimsical and fun. With more than 25 published children’s book, i Cenizal is a seasoned artist. It is no wonder then, that the layouts, designs and illustrations of her work are truly flawless. Her style is easily recognized for her like of pastels, round character heads and beautiful outdoor sceneries. Apart from being a skilled illustrator, she is a well-rounded gal with knowledge of video and animation editing, photography, writing, painting and a love for cycling. She blogs about her passions and art over icenizal , a blog definitely worth a visit for your daily dose of cuteness. The blog has a wonderful collection of her different art styles as well as a generous portion of her first picture book- Mafi and her first bike ride Amazon.com: Mafi and her First Bike Race eBook: i Cenizal: Kindle Store one she authored and illustrated.

And now for an Interview with iCenizal:

How did you get started as an illustrator?

I have always loved art, as a kid I loved drawing and reading picture books. At some point I decided to blend these two through illustrating Children’s Book.

How did you find your style? has it changed since you first started?

In the past, I painted using oil pastels and it occurred to me that I could also use these colors for my digital illustrations.

How would you describe your work?

I would describe my work as “carefree, and child-like” Illustrations that appeal to children and can easily be understood by them. I do illustrate using different styles, when requested by the author.

How many books would you say you have illustrated in your career?

More than 25 published books.

What is the best/most fun part of your work?

Everything, from reviewing the story, making character studies, storyboarding, to illustrating and coloring.

What is the worst/most difficult part of your job?

Honestly, I have no idea. I am very fortunate to do what I love most and I appreciate every part of it.

What motivated you to illustrated and write Mafi?

There are a lot of Alleycat / Bike races here. I was riding my bike one time in the streets of Manila and I felt like everybody was moving, I felt like the vehicles were chasing me, I sensed the speed of light, as if I were on a race. And that night, I felt like I needed to record it or illustrate that vision.

When you are not working what do you like to do?

Ride my bike just like Mafi, and read books

What fonts would you recommend for the interior of a picture book? for the cover?

I use simple easy to read fonts, nothing too playful.

What advice do you have for someone looking to hire a children’s book illustrator?

I suggest for the author to really look through the portfolio of the illustrator, and see if their story will fit with the artist style of artwork.

How much do your illustration services cost?

I have no standard rate, it depends on the story, number of pages, details of the illustrations, and numbers of characters.

If you have ever read articles on “how to write for children”, many will tell you to steer away from writing obvious lessons. The advice has merit and is true for most of us… but what do you do if you have a completely different perspective and approach of the “how” to of dealing with common behavior issues in children? What do you do if you have a background in Psychology, a know-how in conflict resolution and an interest in helping children? You take on a direct approach.

This is true of this week’s featured Indie Author, Shimrit Nothman, who has taken a straighforward approach with her children’s books: Give it Back! , No it’s Mine!, and Justine, We’re Late!

The books aimed at children age 3-8, follow Justine and her brother Benjy, as they learn to deal with common childhood troubles. Problems such as: sharing, taking without asking, sibling rivalry and common arguments. The children’s toys will offer different approaches to dealing with a conflict, and the children are left to decide what advice to follow. The books have a clever twist, Give it Back! is written from Justine’s perspective, while No It’s Mine! from brother Benjy’s.

I can imagine the nitpicking that would be done to this book by traditional publishers, but the reality is, as parents we appreciate a little help. At the end of each book is a “Parents Guide”, and “Tips for Resolving Problems with the Little Ones.” You get two books in one, and it might just be one of the best well-spent .99cents.

We sat Author Shimrit Notham to answer a few questions as well as give us a little advice…

Tell us a bit about your academic background?

I received my BA in Psychology and Communication at Haifa University, where I was also elected as the president of my university’s Debating club.

After working for a few years in the ‘Debate Ltd’ company, I attended Tel Aviv University, where I received my Masters in Conflict Resolution.

What/who inspires you to write for children?

One of my most cherished childhood memories is my mother telling us bedtime stories. Some were stories read from a children’s book and some were stories she made up on the spot. My love for stories never ceased, and when I found myself at the age of 30 writing children stories of my own, it felt just right.

Why write books that aim at teaching children conflict resolution?

‘Conflict Resolution’ may seem like a very heavy concept that only applies to grown-ups, but really it is a general name to any fight, argument or disagreement that we experience in our life. Children are no different to adults in that regard. They deal with several different conflicts at school or kindergarten, and at home everyday.
On top of that, studies found that adults tend to carry on using the same conflict resolution skills they’ve developed at childhood.

For both these reasons, I’ve written children’s books, on the basis that the effective conflict resolution skills they learn today will help them tomorrow and for many years to come.

What have been your biggest challenges in self-publishing?

The first big challenge that I had was figuring out the basics: Where do I find a good illustrator? How do I upload my book on Amazon? and How do I use the KDP free promotion days effectively?
The second biggest challenge that I’m facing is motivating myself. When it’s only you behind the wheel, you must wear many hats: you’re the writer, you’re the publisher, you’re the strategist and the promoter. You need to decide what portion of your time goes to what task, and there is no one pushing you forward and encouraging you to ‘keep up the good work’.

This is the reason why I’ve joined a few different support groups for authors, aimed at helping self-published authors tackle some basic self-publishing issues, and also offering mutual emotional support to all the group members.

What advice would you give someone looking into self-publishing a children’s book?

Find a good illustrator! I guess it goes without saying that nicely illustrated books sell better than poorly illustrated ones. The problem is that generally good illustrators charge more for their work. Self-publishing authors have less funds available than big publishing companies, and so new authors normally look for every option to cut costs, illustrations included. However good your book is, the book’s cover is the first thing that catches the eye of your potential readers. Many times it’s the deciding factor for them whether to purchase your book and read it or look for something else.

Therefore, my advice is- find a good illustrator! It will pay itself back in due time.

Are there plans for a new book?

I’m currently in the midst of writing a conflict-resolution themed book aimed at adults. I’m also considering adding another book to my children’s book series about little Justine who faces conflicts wherever she goes.

What is your advice for parents who deal with young children and sibling rivalry?

The short answer is – try keeping out of it! It may be the hardest thing for a parent to do, but has potential to yield the best results in the long run.

Here is an article I wrote for The Jerusalem Post about this exact problem just a few weeks ago:

Like her momma, Yumi, my fiver year old is a chatty little lady. After reading every page in a new book, she will point to the illustration and ask me to make-up dialogue for each character, together we create giggle-some stories within the story.

So, when I came across the illustrations of Vincent Noot, and his crew of Cutes, I knew, Yumi and I HAD TO HAVE THIS BOOK.

The illustrations are meant to be part of a search book aimed at elementary school aged-children, similar to the “Where is Waldo?” books of my time. What impressed me about the illustrations was the spacing between characters. I had tried other “I spy” and “picture search books” for Yumi, but she found them overwhelming. The Cutes, have just the correct amount of spacing between characters and objects to make it a picture search book that allows for interactive searching as well as imaginative “story-telling.”

The detail of the illustrations is engaging, the facial expressions and body language of the characters make it easy to “make-up dialogue”, and thus encourage early literacy. I can see this book working in the classroom as well, as it is adaptable.

The benefits of wordless and mostly wordless picture books are many. Although Vincent Noot’s Cutes books are search books, each page carries a theme and stories within characters, that allow for creative story-telling.

Wordless and nearly wordless pictures books help children:

understand elements of story structure

develop visual literacy

think and write creatively

develop book handling behavior

You can see why I quickly became a fan of The Cutes, I see a lot of uses and potential in it, both for entertaining and educating.

Unfortunately the book is not out yet, and so I did what any normal person blogger would do, I hunted Mr. Vincent Noot, down, and he kindly agreed to an interview!

What inspired you to illustrate a picture search book?
I have been drawing since I was 4 years old. During my teenage years I drew a lot of comics. Recently a child day care center in the Netherlands started ordering a lot of cartoon drawings in the same style: board games, illustrations, posters, etc. I began to focus more on children’s material. “Where is Waldo” was one of the first search books. I liked them as a kid, but when I did some research, I found out there was hardly anything like it out there, and that there was a lot lacking in their concept. I felt that with my art style, our focus on kids as characters, and targeting children specifically could be successful.

Who are the Cutes?
It’s a family. With my fiancee (now wife), I made up a family whose last name is “Cute”. All the character names start with a “C”: Carissa, Chaz, Cade, Cammy, and Cindy.

How long does it take you to complete one illustration, from rough sketch to finished product?
Usually around 100 hours. Each page has 300-400 individuals in it.

When you are sketching out your illustrations, do you make-up dialogue for each character, what they could be thinking about or saying?
Before each page, I brainstorm about as many creative, funny things that could happen. For example, I divided the Birthday Party page into section of balloons, ball pit, presents, etc. Children can be very silly. So I think of what they’d do with a balloon, like rubbing it over their hair, letting it go into the air, binding it to their ears, popping it, etc. Sometimes I don’t have a lot of ideas beforehand and make it up during the process of drawing.

Are any of the characters sketches in your book based on real people in your life?
My wife (a brunette) and I (a blond) thought it would be funny to give the father blond and the mother brown hair. We don’t know how many children we will have someday though. Sometimes something funny that happened in our lives, comes back in the drawings. For instance, when I was dating my wife, we both took a bite of the same huge hotdog at the same time. So in the Swimming Pool page, I drew a boy and a girl eating a hotdog at the same time.

Who do you think would enjoy your book?
Children ages 3 and up. Adults could enjoy it too. With 12 pages of things to search for, kids could be entertained for hours. Not only are we gonna make a book, but we are planning on making it a tablet game for the ipad, kindle, and other devices. I guess we will see whether the book or the game will sell better.

Initially, the goal was to have it finished by the end of the year. But it will probably be a couple of months later. When it’s finished, we will start a campaign on www.kickstarter.com. Anyone will be able to back our project and receive rewards in return.

What is your goal as and author/illustrator?
If we could spread this book throughout the USA and the world, that would be my dream job. I noticed that in the 80′s, “Where is Waldo” sold several millions of copies. I am not saying we will have that much success, but it can become really big. I believe in that. We already planned a sequel, and have other ideas for the Cute family. Just a heads up: the next book will be about holidays.

What advice would you give those looking to self-publish a children’s book?
Make a great product (good storyline, beautiful illustrations, and/or fun activities, and then comes the hardest part: getting your name out there and getting sales. Social media can help, as well as word-to-mouth, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I also found this article with some ideas, which we will definitely try: http://www.30daybooks.com/six-powerful-ways-to-market-childrens-books/.

Along my adventure of writing and publishing my first children’s book, I found this gem of a woman; writer, editor and “Jill of all Trades,” Janet W. Butler. My experience with Janet as an editor was such a wonderful one that I knew I had stumbled onto something great.

I’ve been telling stories since I was 10, including writing them down — and even trying to illustrate them. (This was a disaster, as I cannot draw!) When people ask this question, they usually mean, “When did you start seriously writing?” To that, I can say I was in my teens; I entered a short story competition for Seventeen magazine when I was 17.

- As a writer what have been your greatest accomplishments?

1) Winning the Golden Heart, RWA’s top award for unpublished manuscripts, in 1998. This came as a result of 10 YEARS of visualizing and working toward that goal — 10 years of entering, of getting to semi-final rounds (when they still had semi-finals), of getting really high scores but never finaling; then — the first year I finaled, I won.

2) Publishing two novels, including the “book of my heart.”

3) Learning how to make a living with my freelance work. This is both easier and harder than most of us think it is!

4) Being mentioned in more than one author’s book in the acknowledgments. I am a sucker for praise, and any time I see my name in someone’s book, it just makes my day.

5) Teaching online writing workshops for six years, and being a regular guest on them to this day.

6) Speaking at writers’ conferences. I LOVE talking about writing, and if I can do it live in front of a real audience, that’s even more fun.

-What advice would you give someone who is setting out to write a great CHILDREN’S book?

All of this comes with the caveat that I’ve never written a children’s book. Bear that in mind.

The best advice I’ve ever heard for this is “think like a child.” I think you need to love children — sounds obvious, doesn’t it, but it’s not always the case! And I think you need to set aside your adult “stuff” long enough to get down where children are and see the world through their eyes. That doesn’t mean you talk “down” to them; if anything, children have way more complex thought processes than we often suspect, and they can grasp a lot of concepts at a pretty high level if we put them in very concrete terms. And be direct; children are direct little critters!

-For the rest of us just beginning our journey in writing, what do you think is the best way to make a reader stick to our book/story?

See earlier advice about “tell a terrific story.” Now, we all know and lots of books succeed, even though they’re poorly written, if they tell a story people identify with. TOO badly written, however, doesn’t work, either — because bad writing gets in the way of telling that great story. Don’t be afraid to have your book edited; many people are under the mistaken impression that editors “wreck” books or try to make them “all alike.” Not true; the best of us want your book to be YOUR book, but the best darn book you can write. Too many writers were shorted on grammar training in school and honestly don’t know the difference between “affect” and “effect” or a thousand other word usage errors. Give it to a good editor: she’ll find and correct them.

If I could ask authors to do one thing above all else, it’s to check your facts as far as you possibly can. Nothing will get your reader more irritated than to have you mess up something you could easily have researched. I’m thinking about anachronisms — word usages that are wrong for the period of the story, cultural references that are “off,” slang that dates a book, etc. — among other things. Other than bad writing or inept use of the language, that’s the thing that will get me tossing a book against the wall fast. Even if you are “sure” you know it…look it up. It never hurts.

– I understand that apart from your love of words, you are also passionate about music; do you find that one inspires the other?

Absolutely. In fact, there are whole books out there in song lyrics, just waiting to be written. (Too many books, too little time.) I personally wrote my Golden Heart-winning book from a song; I know authors who set up “playlists” of music to use when they’re writing a book. I find that when I’m working as a performer, I’m also better able to come up with creative story ideas.

-How has having a background in a wide variety of trades, ranging from editor to performer to waitress and school bus driver, influenced your writing?

It’s sometimes been a bit of a pain, actually, because I spot errors in books where people who haven’t done the jobs in question assume things about them and write the job wrong! Seriously, though, I think it makes it easier to create characters; when you spend time in a profession’s “shoes,” all you have to do for specific details is either do more of that kind of work or get in touch with someone who DOES it, and you can create realistic characters really doing the jobs you’re talking about them doing — and having the mindset of a person who does that work. That’s a crucial ingredient to really good characters.

-What do you believe makes a great book, be it in children’s or adult literature?

Tell me a terrific story; that’s first. Doesn’t matter what genre it is — if I can suspend disbelief and you keep me in that world, I won’t put the book down.

- What are your favorite children’s books?

I love One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish; Little Bear; Where the Wild Things Are; On Beyond Zebra; Clifford the Big Red Dog; and Hop on Pop, among others. I’m sure there are tons more books that after I do this interview, I’ll remember. But these are ones I actually have on my shelf now, in my office. 

-As a writer how much do you feel you’ve improved in the last few years?

That’s tough for me to say; I know I’ve become more aware of my own personal foibles and am more ruthless about going through and weeding them out. (We all have “pet” words we overuse — mine are “just,” “even,” “only,” and lately, “actually” and “basically” have crept in a lot.) I got better at writing fast when I did newspaper columns with twice-weekly deadlines; I’m better at nonfiction right now than I am at fiction, because I’m doing so much nonfiction writing and editing. What I have seen in my writing, personally, is that I need to peel away layers constantly to keep the “nonfiction” voice out of my fiction. It’s an occupational hazard of doing too much of one thing. For any other indicators, you’ve have to ask my critique partner.

-Tell us about your published novels?

I have two: FROM THE ASHES is an inspirational romance that came out from SANDS Publishing in 2001; VOICE OF INNOCENCE is a romantic suspense from Desert Breeze Publishing in 2012. (Yes, I went 11 years without a published book. No, it wasn’t for lack of trying. ) FROM THE ASHES is a “Star is Born” story: two concert pianists, one whose career is on the way down, one whose star is rising — and how they learn to collaborate for life. VOICE OF INNOCENCE is that “book of my heart” I talked about: a man with a sword hanging over his head, and the woman who saves him…with a little help from beyond.

-Where can we find them?

FROM THE ASHES is presently out of print; I’m working on reselling it as a reprint, as the rights have reverted to me. However, I do have some hard copies of the original edition, which I’d be glad to sell to people (and autograph) in the meantime! Just e-mail me at jbutler824@aol.com, and we’ll talk about it.

A caveat, too: some folks have dismissed these because they “never read romance.” Well…some of my best reviews have come from people who never read romance, but who loved these particular books because they’re different from conventional romance fiction. So take a chance — you just might enjoy them.